The disease must be treated as a global public health priority, experts report in the journal PLOS Medicine.
The study compared clinical depression with more than 200 other diseases and injuries as a cause of disability.
Globally, only a small proportion of patients have access to treatment, the World Health Organization says.
Depression was ranked at number two as a global cause of disability, but its impact varied in different countries and regions. For example, rates of major depression were highest in Afghanistan and lowest in Japan. In the UK, depression was ranked at number three in terms of years lived with a disability.
Dr Alize Ferrari from the University of Queensland's School of Population Health led the study.
"Depression is a big problem and we definitely need to pay more attention to it than we are now," she told BBC News.
"There's still more work to be done in terms of awareness of the disease and also in coming up with successful ways of treating it.
"The burden is different between countries, so it tends to be higher in low and middle income countries and lower in high income countries."
Policy-makers had made an effort to bring depression to the forefront, but there was a lot more work to be done, she added.
"There's lots of stigma we know associated with mental health," she explained.
"What one person recognises as disabling might be different to another person and might be different across countries as well, there are lots of cultural implications and interpretations that come in place, which makes it all the more important to raise awareness of the size of the problem and also signs and how to detect it."
The data - for the year 2010 - follows similar studies in 1990 and 2000 looking at the global burden of depression.
Commenting on the study, Dr Daniel Chisholm, a health economist at the department for mental health and substance abuse at the World Health Organization said depression was a very disabling condition.
"It's a big public health challenge and a big problem to be reckoned with but not enough is being done.
"Around the world only a tiny proportion of people get any sort of treatment or diagnosis."
The WHO recently launched a global mental health action plan to raise awareness among policy-makers.
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美国著名医学杂志《PLOS Medicine》的专家报告称，必须将抑郁作为全球公众健康首要问题来对待。
该研究将临床抑郁症与其他200多种引发身心障碍的疾病和伤痛进行了对比。
世界卫生组织表示，全世界仅有小部分病人得到了治疗。
抑郁已成为世界第二大身心健康影响因素，但其影响因国家和地区而异。比如，重度抑郁的比例在阿富汗最高，在日本最低。在英国，困扰病人最久的健康问题中，抑郁排在第三。
昆士兰大学人口卫生学院的阿利兹·费拉里(Alize Ferrari)博士负责此项研究。
她在接受BBC采访时说，“抑郁是个大问题，我们必须予以更多的关注。”
“要让人们意识到这种疾病的严重性，研发成功的治疗方法，我们任重而道远。”
“各国人民承担的压力不同，中低收入国家往往负担更重，而高收入国家负担较低。”
她接着说道，决策者们曾努力使抑郁问题得到重视，但还有许多工作要做。
“我们知道许多病症和心理健康有关。”她解释道。
“对病症的理解因人而异，有可能各国的解释都有差异，一个国家独有的文化内涵和诠释在其中起了重要作用。因此，让人们认识到问题的严重性，了解病症和诊断方法，显得更加重要。”
2010年的数据是采用1990年和2000年研究全球抑郁负担的类似方法得出的。
丹尼尔·奇泽姆(Daniel Chisholm)博士是世界卫生组织心理健康与药物滥用署的健康经济学家，他说抑郁非常容易导致健康问题。
“这是对公众健康的巨大挑战，是应认真对待的大问题，现在做得还远远不够。”
“全世界仅有一小部分病人得到相应的治疗或诊断。”
世界卫生组织最近启动了一项全球心理健康行动计划，以便提升决策者们对此问题的认识。
